


Unzip Your Skin and Let Me Have a See

by MelvisGrey



Category: Archive 81 (Podcast)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Be nice to me, Blood and Gore, Developing Friendship, It's not explicit gore or anything just heavily implied, Long Season 2, Medical Trauma, Missing Scene, Oh and Also, PTSDan, Surgical Horror (Mild), this is my first time posting a fic on here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26158633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelvisGrey/pseuds/MelvisGrey
Summary: Dan and Clara explore the Outpost and make a discovery.Dialogue written by kaamos-mu on tumblr (The real brains behind the operation)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 33





	Unzip Your Skin and Let Me Have a See

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic written around the absolutely [stellar dialogue](https://kaamos-mu.tumblr.com/post/625817250454192128/clara-and-behind-door-number-2-dan-amused) that @kaamos-mu on tumblr wrote. Please check out the original script cause I love it and also love my friend.

_“It’s kind of cool actually.”_

He said that, he thought. At least, he remembered someone saying that. All metal and concrete, imposing, like a military outpost in the middle of the wilderness...

It was cool. It was _really_ cool. He couldn’t lie to himself and say part of him wasn’t absolutely giddy with excitement at the idea of being able to explore and find all the nooks and crannies and hidden gems the Outpost had to offer.

But he was tired. So _unbelievably tired_.

_“You need to get out, move around.”_

He wasn’t allowed to leave, go outside rather, but he could look around the building at the very least.

One wrong door and that idea was crossed off his mental well-being checklist right next to ‘Taking a hot shower to get all the dust and grime off his skin’ and ‘Asking if they had a stupid sun lamp because part of him felt he did still need the stupid fucking vitamin D even if he couldn’t get vitamins cause his _stupid body made it so he had no way of eating without feeling like he was eating the worst plate of food imaginable-_ ’

He needed a break.

He needed a break _and_ someone to tell him that he needed a break.

God, Tatiana- _Tanya_ might have been controlling but he needed someone to steer him the right direction or he’d be lost all over again. Lost and then found by people out to use him and stick their hands all over him for their own purposes-

“Hey, you’re spacing out on me again, what’s going in there?”

“U-uh nothing. Sorry. Just...thinking about stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“Um. Ex stuff.”

“Ew. Never-mind.”

“It’s not like _that_ \- ugh, yeah, never-mind.”

“Anyway, I don’t think we’ve been in here yet.” Clara pulled the door open with a groan that mimicked the metal’s. The room behind it was empty, utterly devoid of anything except the two doors on its rear wall.

“Okay...let’s try the right door.”

The two were met with a familiar sight.

“Ah. A wall. Helpful.” Clara sighed and padded over the door next to it, not even bothering to close the first one. “And behind door number 2…”

Dan let out a small snort. “Do you want a drum-roll?”

She rolled her eyes with a laugh and pulled the door open, which was surprisingly easy despite its looks. The creak it emitted echoed off the walls as she stepped inside, Dan following close behind.

It was dark but the little bit of light from the hall cast metallic streaks of light over the bits of shadow that concealed the room’s contents. It wasn’t the only thing metallic- the room _reeked_ of copper. The entirety of the place seemed to have a dingy metallic quality to it, like a rusted knife.

“Oh, this is creepy. Guessing this is Rat’s…” She navigated around a tray of unidentifiable tools. “...Project room?”

“Yeah, it looks…” Well, looked as much as a lab one could ascertain from the silhouettes alone. Dan moved back to the wall to slap his hand around for a switch, nose wrinkling as he touched something worryingly wet and sticky. “Hold on.”

There was something protruding from the wall and as his now messy fingers touched it, he noted how strangely… clean it felt. On instinct, he flicked the switch. A loose bulb buzzed to life and illuminated the room, albeit in bursts of dim yellow light.

And then it was red.

“God, urgh.” 

“Oh, ew.”

The whole place was covered in that same shade of brownish-red you saw when you squeezed your eyes tightly, that red you saw on old slides and outdated equipment, that red you saw when you peeled off bandages to see if your scrape had finally scabbed over.

“That’s...is that blood?” She curled inwards, moving away from anything she suspected was still slick with gore.

“Yeah, looks like.” His tone was deadpan. This was _Rat_ they were talking about. Would they expect anything less than horror? Dan scanned the walls, eyes trailing over stained sheets and towels, over tools shiny and new and caked with that sickening red. His blood went cold as his gaze settled on the table in the center of the room. The shape of the splatter felt… _looked_ uncanny in some odd way.

“There’s...so much of it. God, who’s-”

“It’s mine.” It felt like the air had squeezed out his lungs and his heart lumped into his throat.

“Dan, are you-?”

His body moved backwards. “It’s mine. I-I-” Red. The sound of someone’s heartbeat hammering in their chest. Was it his? Was it hers? Was it- He sucked in a breath and it left him with a violent tremor,”Sorry, I um-”

He was moving, he thought. He could feel the floor under his feet, the vibrations pounding under faux leather and thick rubber and clicking metal-

He couldn’t say where, just felt his gait going sporadic as the length in his strides increased.

Through the pounding of blood in his ears he could barely make out someone calling out to him, like they were talking through water. 

Weren’t they, in a way? Blood and water. Water and blood. Blood. Blood. _Blood_ -

“Uh, Dan? Dan!”

He had to get out of here. Here? Where was-

At some point, he had sunk to the floor in a heaving pile of limbs, all his own. All so unmistakably his own, even if he didn’t _want_ them to be-

He straightened his posture and took note of how fast his breathing had gotten. He couldn’t have gone too far. Right?

Someone moved slowly towards him, out of the corner of his eye.

Clara, carefully sitting next to him without a word, exhaled. “I’m...sorry. I-”

“N-no, it’s...I-I’m just-” His breath hitched.

“If I’d known I wouldn’t have-”

“I-it’s not your fault. I’m…” Wet. There was something wet landing on his arm. Blood? No. Water. _Water_. He was crying. Fuck.

Clara took a breath, he registered as he rushed to wipe the tears from his face, only hiccuping more as he realized that he smeared that goddamn blood onto his cheek-

He couldn’t let her see him like this.

He covered his face with one hand and sighed. “Sorry, I’m just, ha, being dramatic it’s-”

“You’re not...being dramatic! You’re not overreacting! You don’t have to, to apologize for having emotions! People...have emotions! A-and what happened to you, it’s…” Dan caught her glance and apparently the look on his face was enough for her to change her angry outburst into something softer. She sighed,”It’s fucked up, okay? You didn’t…”

“It’s...I…” He mirrored her sigh, unsure of how to proceed. “I wasn’t even awake for most of it, it’s not-”

“You were awake?” Dan had never seen Clara look so appalled before. 

He fumbled for words, trying not to worsen the blow- _worsen_? Was it...bad? Dan swallowed. ”For uh, a little bit...um. A bit? I didn’t feel anything after...a-after the um. The tape went in.”

“God.”

_It was bad_.

“I-it’s, uh. I-”

“You don’t-” A sigh. A smoothing of wrinkles from her pants. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

Did he? He couldn’t even register the tears that had dripped from his face and onto the _godforsaken tape_ that got him to this point. 

“...” He looked away and exhaled with a shudder, shaking his head. Clara nodded, unsure of what to do, before humming to herself. There was a jerk of movement and Dan turned enough to see her tuck her arm back to her side.

Oh.

Huh.

Was she…?

“Do um… Do you want a- Are you okay with?”

That was _new_.

“Y-yeah. I’d...yeah.”

Good God, he’d never wanted a hug more badly in his life.

And while Clara’s arm around his shoulder was a tad stiff, it was everything he could have needed in that moment.

The tension left him and the embrace felt like sunlight.

“Thanks.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to leave comments and reviews. And also go tell my friend how amazing they are cause they deserve every bit of love for writing the original script for this!


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